Payal Suri (India) is an operations and crisis response specialist with over 30 years of experience across the United Nations, U.S. Government, and private sector. She has spent more than 15 years with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), advising and supporting 24+ country offices across Asia and the Pacific. Her core expertise includes operational strategy, institutional risk management, business continuity, financial oversight, and enterprise reform, particularly in complex and high-risk settings.

Payal has held senior operational roles with UNDP in Thailand, Myanmar, and the Pacific Multi-Country Office in Fiji, and has provided consulting support to the Uzbekistan Country Office. In these assignments, she advised senior leadership on office realignment, compliance frameworks, and sustainability strategies during periods of transition and uncertainty.

She is highly experienced in corporate budget development, integrated work planning, enterprise risk oversight, and business continuity planning. She has led region-wide coordination on financial sustainability and is proficient in ERP platforms, including PeopleSoft and Oracle Cloud (Quantum).

Payal led the operational response in Myanmar during the 2021 political crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. She managed real-time risks, oversaw staff evacuation procedures, and developed contingency plans in close coordination with UN agencies and headquarters.

As Operations Manager for UNDP India, one of the organization’s largest offices, she introduced new cost-sharing models with government partners, created SOPs for financial compliance, and guided operational adjustments during India’s transition to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) framework.

Before joining the UN in 2007, Payal spent over 15 years in leadership roles with the private sector and USAID, working across finance, operations, and enterprise systems. Her cross-sectoral experience enables her to align global system reforms with country-level operational needs.

She is a qualified Chartered Accountant (affiliated with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India - ICAI) with a bachelor's degree in commerce (Honours) from the University of Delhi. She is fluent in English and Hindi and is a special invitee to the ICAI Committee for Promoting Work-Life Balance, contributing to organizational policy and workplace well-being.